PERILOUS PROFESSIONS


PERILOUS PROFESSIONS

A street vendor is offering mats with kaleidoscopic designs around the Gofa neighbourhood. The thousands of agile vendors scattered about the capital conduct their businesses, evading the watchful eye and whipping baton of the Code Enforcement Authority. As the Addis Abeba City Administration looks to either register and extract taxes from the network of informal businessmen or remove them from the streets, a daily cat-and-mouse spectacle unfolds in the capital. Estimates place the size of the urban informal employment sector at somewhere between 20 and 40pc, with the vast discrepancies partly stemming from a population census lagging for 17 years.

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In-Picture

UP AND DOWN

Makeshift wooden ladder bridges on duty due to ongoing corridor development works around Goro Square, offering a precarious route for pedestrians and shopgoers. As part of the city's corridor upgrade, sidewalks are being rebuilt, but delays and the absence of accessible detours have forced residents to improvise. Business owners have been left to create temporary access for customers, while construction crews continue grading and excavation without marked pedestrian pathways...


In-Picture

BUSTED MYSTERY

As part of the city's beautification project, a collapsed metal-sheet fence around the Kkare building in Mexico Square reveals dusty roads and disorganised structures behind the polished façade. While intended to conceal construction zones, the fences have also become canvases for muralists adding bursts of colour and creativity to the transforming cityscape...


In-Picture

SHY FASHION

Shielded by sun, hidden from view, mannequins around the stadium stand veiled as new corridor rules ban storefront shades. A young shopper steps inside, guided more by curiosity than display. The restrictions are part of a broader city plan to standardise shopfront aesthetics along major corridors...